Our last trip to Bail was in June of 2002. Shortly after arriving safely back home, we saw the terrible news of the bombing in Kuta. We were appalled and shocked and saddened, as you all must have been, and all the more so because of our experience here at home with 9/11. Terrorists pick easy targets, it seems, and innocent ones. And once again they have picked an easy target.
Only about three weeks ago, my husband and I had begun talking about a return trip to Bali. What had been unthinkable a year or two ago, now had become possible in my mind. I went back in the archives and re-read my JBRs. I remembered the good things and was able to pass over the things that drove me nuts at the time. I thought about the folks we had known and how I missed them. I received a wonderful, kind e-mail from our Balinese friends inquiring about us in the wake of the recent hurricanes. I began reading the forum again. I was ready.
And then THIS. We forumites are all feeling the same things. To go or not to go? Anger. Impotence. Defiance. Disgust. The desire to face one of those sorry sons-of-******* and spit in their eye. I am feeling everything from the mundane and selfish (How dare those creeps ruin my vacation?) to the base (The Balinese should hunt these people down like dogs and display their mutilated bodies in the town square.) Personally, I think that last one is not a bad idea.
Didn't the Indonesian government actually shorten the sentences of some of the men suspected in conspiring in the 2002 bombing? I could be wrong here. Didn't they actually let some of them go? What is wrong with these people?
Well, I digress. My prayers go out to you all, those who stay home, and those who go on ahead anyway. If I had young children, I would stay home. As it is, my daughter is grown and married, so perhaps we shall go anyway. Or perhaps not. It is, after all, a big world, with many places to go. My heart goes out most of all to the Balinese, who depend on tourism for their livelihood. God bless them all, and the devil take the terrorists.